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Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf Dies at 78
Retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who became known as "Stormin' Norman" when he led U.S. troops to victory in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, died Thursday in Tampa, Fla., of complications from pneumonia, the Associated Press reports. He was 78.
Born in Trenton, N.J., Schwarzkopf went to Iran as a teenager with his father, who was training the Iranian national police force, according to the AP. Schwarzkopf attended schools in Iran, Switzerland, Germany and Italy, and attended West Point upon returning to the States. He graduated in 1956 with an engineering degree and later earned a master's degree in engineering at the University of Southern California.
Schwarzkopf later served two tours in the Vietnam War, and earned three Silver Stars for valor, as well as a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and three Distinguished Service Medals.
See other celebrities we've lost this year
In 1988, he was named commander in chief of U.S. Central Command at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base, where he dealt with U.S. military and security concerns in the Middle East, Afghanistan, central Asia, Pakistan and other areas, the AP reports. In the early 1990s, Schwarzkopf commanded Operation Desert Storm during the first Gulf War, which successfully drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait.
He retired from the army in 1992.
Accolades include a knighthood bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II, as well as honors from France, Britain, Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, according to the AP.
Schwarzkopf is survived by his wife, Brenda, and their three children, Cynthia, Jessica and Christian.
View original Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf Dies at 78 at TVGuide.com
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text: Home / Gallery / Industry / American Agar Company – diver underwater – nd #OP 13016-179 What would you like to buy? {{option.name}} Permission for Commercial Outside Production requires prior approval Print Size Paper/Finish Canvas Size Use In New use Format File Size For videotaping please contact us. Title (required) Author/Publisher (required) Circulation Title (required) Author/Publisher (required) Title (required) Author/Publisher (required) Circulation Description of Use (required) Print Run Description of Use (required) Title (required) Director/Producer (required) Location Request Non-profit Rate Please provide 501C(3) number (required) On Front or Back Cover When images are used on front or back cover the use fee triples Access Fee: ${{info.accessFee}} Final Output Size {{ size.name }}${{ size.calc }} Use In New use See Non-profit Rates Outside Production Rights cannot be ordered online. Please contact us to request outside production rights. Add to cart Please fill in the required fields Category: Industry American Agar Company – diver underwater – nd Photo ID #OP 13016-179

subset: commoncrawl


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Welcome to Dragon Cave! Dragon Cave is an online adoptables game. Collect eggs, raise them to adulthood, and then breed them to create interesting lineages. New dragons are added regularly!
Heartstealing Dragons are an unusual breed, named for their mating rituals. These dragons use their long, slender bodies to sneak into both human and dragon holds to steal things over the year. Then, when the right season hits, they give away their entire hoard as gifts, leaving things in the homes of other dragons to attract them. When these gifts are found, however, the recipients can't always tell who gave the gifts. This receiver often assumes the source of the gift was the original owner, causing them to form friendly bonds with other dragons in the area, spreading peace—and sometimes even sparking love. The only way to know if a gift is from a Heartstealing Dragon is to find one of their wafer-thin scales at the scene.
Dragons are highly-intelligent reptilian creatures that—from a human perspective, at least—appear to live forever. Many different varieties of dragon exist, each with their own unique qualities, habitats, and behavior. Adolescence in dragons is usually marked by the growth of a hatchling's wings, although not all breeds of dragons grow wings and some breeds have other traits that indicate the beginning of maturation. In Galsreim, dragons and humans coexist peacefully.


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Hot Online: 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' trailer released
Staff Writer
The Bulletin
Something to talk about
Basketball season is officially back tonight. What NBA team or player are you rooting for?
Trending on Twitter
A tease of the new "X-Men: Days of Future Past" is out. Watch the official trailer here.
Hot video: Filmmaker secretly shoots horror film inside Disneyland
In "Escape from Tomorrow," the most buzzed-about movie out of this year's Sundance Film Festival, director Randall Moore presents Disneyland as a dystopian hellscape.
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Google just plunked down $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility. Would the deal have been cheaper if Big G had just purchased a handset maker back in January 2010 rather than launching the ill-fated Nexus One instead?
To figure that out, we need to look back at the state of Motorola some 19 months ago and apply some mathematical magic.
The thought experiment
When the Nexus One was introduced, Motorola sported a market cap of about $10.6 billion. That's for the entire Motorola beast, including the infrastructure and enterprise operations that later became Motorola Solutions. At the time, mobile devices represented 31 percent of Motorola's sales and did not generate profits. The only fair division available is to split the company along revenue lines.
Thirty-one percent of $10.6 billion is $3.3 billion, and Google is paying 3.8 times that amount. If the deal falls apart for some reason, like failing regulatory approval or due to Motorola's shareholder vote, Google will pay a $2.5 billion breakup fee that nearly equals our hypothetical early-2010 market cap.
In slightly more realistic terms, Google would probably have needed a similar-sized buyout premium back then. This would put the theoretical buyout price at $6.2 billion, or about half of the final price tag.
When Motorola separated last December, the final value of Mobility was one-ninth of the total company—Motorola shareholders received one Mobility share per eight regular shares. Using that ratio instead, you'd get a fair price of $1.9 billion including the buyout boost.
The road not taken
Any way you slice it, Google could have saved a truckload of cash by getting into the hardware game much earlier. Its bold plan to revolutionize the way cell phones are sold fizzled early on, and the Nexus One became nothing but a developer phone in less than six months' time. We don't know what that failed experiment ended up costing Google, but most of the pain was probably passed to Nexus-maker HTC.
Since then, Android's reference models have jumped from one manufacturer to another, including the Samsung-designed Nexus S and Motorola's Xoom tablet. With this acquisition safely under its vest from an early date, Google could have kept that zig-zagging firmly under control and in-house, while also clamping down on the much-maligned Android fragmentation issues.
Moreover, a stronger, Moto-powered patent portfolio might have encouraged Apple to keep its litigious fingers away from Samsung and HTC. Google could have been an official white knight standing by to help any handset designer in Apple's crosshairs. (Then again, Samsung is no slouch in gadgets patents either and Cupertino sure is going after that target. And Oracle would still be complaining about misused Java code. There are no magic bullets in the patent wars.)
On the other hand, Google would also have lost a chance to build the diverse support system that Android now enjoys. Some call it fragmentation and others call it choice or diversity; from that perspective, Mountain View would be probably better off leaving Motorola alone altogether, though it did manage to round up quotes from handset manufacturers saying they support the buyout.
What's new?
Ironically, buying Motorola Mobility makes Google a truer copy of the Apple business model. No longer a hands-off software provider with no financial interest in handset sales, Google now needs to worry about hardware implementation and direct profits. This two-headed beast will deliver the purest Android experience on the market, and will be held up as a role model or pariah when things go right or very wrong for the platform.
And let's not forget that Motorola Mobility might not go home with Google after all. Perhaps the biggest reason to pick up Motorola rather than just buying another basket of protective patents is that regulators might block a pure patent deal but could let this agreement pass because Google is buying hardware operations where it holds no monopoly whatsoever. That doesn't make it a slam-dunk, however.
All told, leaving Motorola on the table for a year and a half added at least $6 billion to the dollar cost but also brought about a slew of less obvious costs—and benefits.
For better or worse, Android just changed in a big way. And if Google had made this move a year ago, the market would look very different today in that unpredictable way that makes hurricanes out of fluttering butterfly wings.
Listing image by Photograph by Rodrigo Bastos


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Dimensions & material
Motif size: 18 x 10,2 mm
Material: varnished beech with motif sticker,
the rubber stamp is mounted on a cushioning layer of foam.
Care and maintenance
To ensure long enjoyment of the stamps, it is advisable to apply the stamp to a damp cloth after use until no more ink residue is present.
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Third parties are not authorised to copy, reproduce, distribute or otherwise use the stamps and the motifs thereupon for commercial purposes.
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Job Information
UPMC Medical Assistant , Part-Time, Absolute Primary Care (Cranberry Twp) in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania
UPMC Absolute Primary Care is seeking a Part-Time Medical Assistant to join their Cranberry Twp. team.
The office is open 6:30 am - 6:00 pm Mondays and 6:30 am - 5:00 pm Tuesday through Friday and this position offers flexibility with days/times.
Assist physicians with various aspects of patient care (including clerical, environmental, and organizational tasks) ensuring patient satisfaction.
Check schedules and organize patient flow.
Accompany patients to exam/procedure room. Assist patients as needed with walking, transfers, dressing, collecting specimens, preparing for exam, etc.
Collect patient information/history, taking vitals, performing screenings per provider guidelines.
Relay instructions to patients/families.
Send/receive patient medical records in accordance with Health Insurance.
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and other state and federal regulations.
Prepare patient rooms, set up instruments and equipment according to department protocol.
Clean exam/procedure rooms, instruments and equipment between patient visits to maintain infection control.
Clean according to scheduled maintenance program and keep appropriate records.
Manage inventory of supplies; restocking exam/procedure rooms.
Comply with requirements of appropriate regulatory agencies (i.e. OSHA, CLIA, PA Department of Health).
Maintain strict confidentiality related to medical records and other data.
Comply with all UPMC Health System policies and procedures.
Perform phlebotomy, EKGs, and level one labs. Perform clinic procedures according to policy and procedure. Assist physicians with procedures. Document patient information into the medical record.
Answering calls and providing pertinent information including patient education as directed.
Obtain lab/x-ray reports, hospital notes, referral information, etc.
Complete forms/requisitions as needed.
Schedule appointments.
Verify insurance coverage and patient demographics.
Prepare and manage charts to ensure information is completed and filed appropriately.
Other front office responsibilities, as required.
High school diploma or equivalent is required.
Must have basic computer skills and knowledge of medical terminology, examination, diagnostic and treatment room responsibilities.
Licensure, Certifications, and Clearances:
CPR required based on AHA standards that include both a didactic and skills demonstration component within 30 days of hire
CPR required based on AHA standards that include both a didactic and skills demonstration component within 30 days of hire.
Basic Life Support (BLS) OR Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
Act 31 Child Abuse Reporting with renewal
Act 33 with renewal
Act 34 with renewal
Act 73 FBI Clearance with renewal
UPMC is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran
Applicants will be placed in the appropriate job title and salary from the Medical Assistant Career Ladder, based on their individual experience and education.
UPMC has a Center for Engagement and Inclusion that is charged with executing leading-edge and next-generation diversity strategies to advance the organization's diversity management capability and its national presence as a diversity leader. This includes having Employee Resource Groups, such as PRIDE Health or UPMC ENABLED (Empowering Abilities and Leveraging Differences) Network, which support the implementation of our diversity strategy.
- UPMC Jobs


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Situational awareness, or "looking at more than just health bars so you see the puddles of goo on the floor", is insanely key to being a good healer. So key in fact that I would further break down the topic into personal situational awareness and global situational awareness, the later being "seeing the goo that everyone ELSE is standing in". So I'm breaking this up into two posts and starting with personal.
Imagine you're looking at your WOW UI. There at the center of the screen, what do you see? You. It might be a dwarf priest, a Tauren shaman, a Draeni paladin, or a Tree (by the way, save the trees!), but it's you. Too often in healing we are so busy looking at everyone else (at least, everyone else's health bars) that we forget to look at ourselves.
To learn to escape tunnel vision we must be more aware of ourselves and our surroundings. It makes a great story when we can say "… and then I realized I was wearing my fishing pole!" or "Then I remembered I hadn't switched out of my PVP healing spec!" but in truth, when you say that, you have failed. Personal awareness is your first goal when entering an instance or a raid.
Your pre-flight checklist:
Am I in healing mode?
Healing gear?
Healing spec?
Tree form?
Am I ready to go?
Buffs ok? (what do your party members bring?)
Mana bar up?
Phone off the hook, dog outside, baby changed?
Is my party ready?
Identify the tank
Classify each dps player
Mentally categorize their resource type (more on the last few when I do the global situational awareness topic)
Tell the tank "I'm ready to go". Let him know after pulls if there were too many mobs or if you need a second. Remind the mage not to stand in fire.
This is in ideal world. In the real world, the tank has pulled three patrols before you're actually in the instance, the mage is already dead, and the paladin doesn't speak English and has given you Blessing of Might. So while you're running to catch up, do as many of these things as you can, while firing off whatever "Oh Crap" spells you have and wondering if those Frost badges are really worth it.
During the Run:
Your location may vary fight to fight. In general, you want to be close to but not in melee range. If you're too far away, then when the mage pulls aggro, frost novas the mobs next to you, and blinks away, then you're in trouble. If you're closer in the tank will have an easier time. On the other hand, sometimes you'll want to stay back. Do you know that a mob throws chain lightning or fears? You might stay farther off. For a rule of thumb, never get so far behind that if the tank charges he goes out of range.
If you know an encounter cold, you might think about where you should stand to best help the tank. For instance in Utgarde Keep on the Prince fight, stand so that the tank is between you and the door where the skeletons spawn. When they aggro on you, they will run over the tank who has an easier job of picking them up than if he had to run over to you. If you have a good tank friend, ask him about fights and where particularly you can stand to help him out.
Stay out of the fire, obviously. If you're having tunnel vision, make your own health bar nice and visible so when you start taking damage you notice – and then move! Most fights you probably know cold by now anyway. You'll know when a boss is going to do a move that means you need to move. Watch where you stand when you're fighting dragons (head and tail are bad, stand on one side). Just run down an encounter before it happens so that when you need to react, it takes you less time
Remember your own defensive cooldowns: chances are when the party takes an AOE, you'll take damage too. Throw a defensive cooldown ahead of time if you can, like Barkskin, to give yourself breathing room. Or have a shield or a hot on yourself already.
Watch your aggro: Try not to heal the tank until he's got aggro. If you do pull, bring the mobs to him. Don't count on him seeing that one that's hitting you, take proactive steps. Again, if you have problems with tunnel vision, make your own health bar really big and obvious and when it starts going down, figure out why.
Assess the run. If you were going with a friend, talk about it with them. Were there avoidable deaths? Places things could have been smoother? Figure it out and file it away under "next time". Mistakes are for learning, not recrimination.


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Hello. I'm Ash Noureldin, Owner / Centre Director of Mathnasium of North Regina, your neighbourhood math-only learning centre. We help kids in grades 2-12 understand math by teaching the way that makes sense to them.
When math makes sense, kids leap way ahead – whether they started out far behind or already ahead in math. Our formula for teaching kids math, the Mathnasium Method™ has transformed the way kids learn math for over a decade across 1,000+ centres in the US and Canada:
- We know how to teach your child math.
Our specially trained math instructors will teach your child how to understand math in an individual setting – our unique approach enables us to effectively explain math concepts well and lend a helping hand to every student. Our tutors foster a caring, encouraging environment that helps kids thrive and learn!
- We pinpoint your child's learning needs, meet them where they are, and take them where they need to go.
Mathnasium instructors use our unique assessment process to determine (with great accuracy) exactly what each child knows and what they need to learn. Next, we design a customized learning plan for teaching the concepts the student needs to master. It doesn't stop there – our encouraging instructors continually check progress along the way to make sure kids truly understand and retain the concepts we've taught. The results are transformative – kids will see measurable changes in attitude, confidence, and school progress.
- We will help your child overcome homework frustration.
Our instructors will also set aside time to provide homework help. We help kids understand the homework assignment so they feel better prepared to complete the work at home – underscoring their understanding of concepts and transforming homework frustration into a welcome challenge.
About Our Centre
Our physical centre is located in Regina on 4127 Rochdale Blvd.
Also available in your area, real-time face-to-face instruction over an internet connection.
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Mathnasium of North Regina Reviews
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< Cloud
Fedora Cloud Product Requirements Document.
Document Purpose and Overview
This is the Product Requirements Document for the Fedora Cloud SIG. It:
- Provides a high-level market of the cloud computing market as it pertains to the Fedora Cloud SIG; this includes overviews of things which may not be within our actual scope/ability to accomplish at the current time.
- Provides deeper understanding of the types of users who could use Fedora for their cloud computing needs. This includes describing their main day-to-day tasks, common problems, and so on. The perspective here is not necessarily limited to system administrators, or developers, but a combination of many types of users and roles.
- Ties common issues and needs of potential users and consumers of the Fedora Cloud product to high-level product needs, from a "functional" standpoint
- Provides solutions, in the form of "changes" or "features" which will provide the functionality described as needs for the potential users.
Release/Product Overview
Fedora Cloud provides a customizable base image and tools for developing scale out applications on public and private clouds, as well as two to four images pre-configured for what we expect to be the most popular scenarios/use cases for using Fedora for cloud computing. Public and private cloud adoption is taking off, and the requirements for an image OS differ significantly from the requirements for a desktop or server OS. In these environments, much or all of the instance lifecycle — from the creation of the image and addition of software or configuration specific to the instance, to the teardown of the image — will be automated. Systems are designed to scale out via many identical nodes rather than scale up with carefully-tended individual servers. Individual uptime (mean time between failure) is not as important as the ability to get a new instance running quickly (mean time to recovery). With that in mind, we're tailoring a release specifically for cloud environments.
Market Opportunity
Public and private cloud adoption is happening rapidly, but the market is not yet mature and is relatively ripe for disruption even though some favorites have emerged as early leaders. In the next two to three years, we expect to see a great deal of growth in adoption and still see a number of emerging players where no clear favorites have emerged (for instance, Google Compute Engine). Additionally, some platforms (Amazon Web Services) have matured to a point where a large number of companies are relying upon the technology for their full infrastructure. While this is not a widespread practice, AWS is seeing a great deal of adoption and will likely start eating into "traditional" workloads that currently live behind the firewall. In short, there's an enormous opportunity for Fedora to become an instance-OS of choice if the project moves quickly, develops or adopts the right technologies, and succeeds in educating the market about its existence. A failure on any of those three points means that the Fedora Cloud product will have little chance in taking a significant portion of the new market or taking any of the existing market.
Major Release Themes
Cloud computing in general is the transition of computing power from individual hand-tended resources to a ubiquitous utility. Fedora fits in at several levels, from the infrastructure service software we include (like OpenStack and Eucalyptus) to end-user tools.
The Fedora Cloud image fits into middle of this, providing a guest OS image to run on Infrastructure as a Service systems, on which platform and application services can be deployed. We targets use cases which fit the "cattle" side of the "pets vs. cattle" metaphor for computing.
We also need to address demand for Linux containers. Docker, Rocket (rkt), systemd-nspawn, as well as orchestration technologies (Kubernetes, Mesos, etc.) are going to play a huge role in developing, deploying, and managing cloud services. The Cloud Working Group needs to address these technologies and help guide their development within Fedora.
Secondary Objectives
Aside from adoption and development of applications on top of the Fedora Cloud images, we have a few secondary goals that will be helped by wider adoption:
- More testing of Fedora images with additional bug reports.
- Better feedback about how the product should improve. This is separate from "bug reports" in that we hope to engage the audience and receive detailed feedback about use cases, desired features, developing trends in cloud management, etc.
- Patches and contributions that will help improve the product, and Fedora in general. As we are increasingly successful, more users will take an interest in helping to develop our product.
Target Market / Audience
Developers and operators creating scale out applications on top of public and private clouds, and organizations and users running those applications. Fedora is particularly interested in organizations that might want to contribute back to Fedora and be involved in helping find/report/fix bugs, and develop new features.
Delivery Mechanisms
Cloud images must be easy to consume as part of a public or private cloud. Because we target these environments, we won't be worrying about physical media at all. The cloud images also won't be "installed" in the same manner that users are accustomed to with desktop or server images. The cloud image will simply boot in its target environment ready to run, or for further customization and configuration via a boostrapping service.
Where to obtain
Users will be able to obtain the images for public clouds via download or via the usual marketplace for those images. For instance, we publish AMIs directly to the AWS Marketplace. Users are able to launch new instances with Fedora without having to obtain the images directly from the Fedora Project and then upload to AWS. Users will be able to download appropriate images for Apache CloudStack, Eucalyptus, OpenStack, OpenNebula, and other IaaS platforms.
Delivery Format
Images will be delivered as AMIs on Amazon EC2, and as downloadable images in qcow2 and raw.xz formats. We may add other public cloud images and other downloadable formats to meet demand or anticipated need.
Starting F24, we will be targeting 64-bit x86 and drop 32-bit x86. As ARM-based cloud systems become available, we will add ARM images.
Fedora Cloud images can be updated using DNF or YUM as normal. We also intend to produce periodic respun images with security updates, once the infrastructure is in place to support that.
Image Creation Toolkit
We will also maintain a set of tools that can be used to generate, modify, and configure Fedora instances for use with public and private clouds. Initial efforts will focus on creating official images in Fedora's build system. This effort is in parallel to that and does not block the main release. The Fedora Cloud SIG is also interested in a curated library of image templates. Unofficial templates will be made available through a peer-reviewed portal, so that users can use these templates with confidence to bootstrap their own images.
Measuring Success
Currently, Fedora is not a widely used option for instances on public and private clouds. We know there's some usage, but it's not one of the top three or four OSes on Amazon or (likely) for private clouds. Success looks like:
- Increase in adoption.
- Third party support / targeting of Fedora Cloud as a platform.
- Increased contribution and participation in the Fedora Cloud WG and Fedora Project in general.
User Profiles, Goals, and Primary Use Cases
User Profiles
There are three cloud user roles which describe the tasks of the people who interact with any cloud-based system:
- Cloud Service Creator: Develops the technical and business aspects of a (simple or high-level) cloud service
- Cloud Service Provider: Provides all types of services to a Service Consumer
- Cloud Service Consumer: Consumes all types of services offered by a Service Provider
We will use a set of personas to describe our target users and their respective needs. These users are primarily in the cloud service creator and cloud service provider roles. This document lists the personas in summary form, with detailed explanations of each one available in a separate document. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Cloud_Personas. These roles include aspects of cloud service creators, providers, and consumer.
- AWS enthusiast and Early Adopter
- Writes and maintains a number of AWS-deployed applications including staging and production.
- Works for a small start-up, primarily on his own. Automates as much as possible.
- DevOps Team Member
- Uses the cloud to do Ruby on Rails development utilizing virtual machines.
- Works as part of a DevOps team responsible for all aspects of a set of applications.
- Development, QA, and Production environments need to be identical.
- Web Developer
- Concentrates on app development, not architecture, deployment, or operations.
- Unlikely to care deeply about OS internals, cares that they can easily deploy the frameworks they want to use.
- Large-Environment Sysadmin
- Interested in deploying self-service PaaS to lighten operational load
- Will work closely with development team on deployment and development.
- Data Scientist
- Works with large data sets
- Interested in big data tools and dedicated scripting languages (R, Octave, etc.)
- HPC Scientist
- Moving from traditional batch and grid technology to the cloud.
- Interested in hybrid cloud (infrastructure overflow) for some massive computation campaigns.
Primary Use Cases
Web Application Deployment in a Public Cloud
Modern web applications are deployed as a collection of interconnected services, including parts like web servers, application servers, databases, and caching layers. Fault tolerance is handled at the overall orchestration level rather than by individual instances. Fedora Cloud can be the base of each of these parts, providing recent libraries, server software, and language toolchains. Each system will be managed using the public cloud's own management tools plus a configuration management system like Puppet, Chef, Salt, or Ansible. Code may be developed against different language stacks; if these are readily available to users, that's a win. In the real world, libraries and other code we don't include may also be required and we should make that as painless as possible. Fedora Cloud will provide access to the following stacks (not exhaustive):
- Ruby: Rails, Sinatra
- Python 2 & 3: Django, Pyramid, Flask
- PHP 5.x: Symfony2, ZendFramework 2.x
- Node.js
- Java
- Perl 5.x
- Go
Web Application Deployment in Private Cloud
As above, but in a locally-deployed and managed private cloud system.
Web Application Deployment in Hybrid Cloud
As above, but rather than a single cloud provider, the application seamlessly takes advantage of resources in both a private and public cloud.
Hybrid Cloud as Staging Area
Application development and testing happens in-house on a private cloud, while production goes to a public cloud. Possible scenarios: Using an open source IaaS stack internally and externally (e.g. OpenStack internally, Rackspace externally; Eucalyptus internally, AWS externally; CloudStack internally, any of the CloudStack providers or AWS externally; or using a library like jClouds to smooth out the bumps.) This may include identical software stacks which run in different clouds, or cloud-specific tailored images onto which an application is deployed, or even very different environments under which the same Docker container is run.
Simple Deployment of Code from Development to Production
As a developer, I want to ensure that my code is easily deployable from my development environment to a QA environment and finally a production environment, without encountering compatibility issues or surprises from differences in the environment. A solution where an identical customized image or container (such as Docker) is used in all three environments is ideal.
Target IaaS environments
The Fedora Cloud product can be used as a guest/VM/image under many IaaS services and providers. For projects that are not currently packaged within Fedora/EPEL, we may need to locate a kind person to ensure testing. These include: Open source IaaS systems:
- OpenStack
- Eucalyptus
- Apache Cloudstack
- OpenNebula
- oVirt
Public clouds:
- Amazon EC2
- Google Compute Engine
- HP Cloud
- Rackspace
- Digital Ocean
- Linode
Feature: Ready to run in Public and Private Clouds
The Fedora cloud image is ready to go out of the box in the public and private cloud environments we target. It includes cloud-init, the defacto standard for boot-time configuration for cloud instances, and heat_cfgtools package, which is used for handling guest initialization with OpenStack Heat.
Feature: Ready Access to Fedora Collection of Packages
- Access to the standard Fedora package repositories
- Standard language stacks (like Python, Ruby, NodeJS, PHP)
- Modernized language and application-specific stacks, perhaps in the form of SCLs, for running userspace applications
Feature: Updated Images
Currently, the Fedora Cloud images are only produced twice-yearly as part of the general Fedora release. Because Fedora updates constantly, this means that after several months, it is often the case that a newly-launched image has pending updates which effectively replace the entire content. This is slow and wastes bandwidth, and in many cases means that users simply never update. Instead, we will produce images with security updates and critical bugfixes rolled in. Our initial target is monthly releases, with special updates produced for critical security flaws.
Feature: Cloud -> Server
The Fedora Server product targets more traditional server roles, where systems have a more unique identity. The Fedora Cloud image supports this by providing a path to go from our base to a Fedora Server role, in effect taming one of your cloud computing "cattle" and making it into a "pet" traditional server — but running in a cloud environment.
Feature: Atomic Host
The Atomic Host provides an easy means to keep your container infrastructure up to date. Atomic provides git-like updates and roll backs of your host packages so your containers can keep running, secure and stable. The Atomic spin will provide updates every two weeks, ensuring that your host receives the latest system updates.
Feature: Dockerfiles
Fedora Dockerfiles provides a curated list of Dockerfiles designed to work with Fedora - making both development and deployment of your Docker infrastructure easier. By maintaining a list of supported Dockerfiles, we're able to better saturate the container ecosystem, making it easier for developers to use Fedora in their stack from end to end.
Future Features
The following areas are unlikely to be completely addressed in the upcoming iteration of Fedora Cloud, but we intend to work on them in the future.
Image Generation Tools
The official Fedora Cloud images will be produced in the Fedora build system (Koji) using kickstart scripts, Anaconda, Oz, and ImageFactory. We also want to provide tools and documentation so users can easily respin their own images. This will likely be using ImageFactory as well. We may provide a web-based service for user-created images.
Image or Image Template Library
In addition to the basic tooling for image creation, we want to enable sharing of user-created images and their recipies. This may apply to Docker or other container images in addition to images targetted at full virtualization.
Higher-Level Cloud Tooling
Initial efforts focus on individual cloud images. In the future, we want to address higher level concerns as well. These areas include:
- Orchestration
- Performance / Scalability / Failover
- Logging / Auditing
- Monitoring / Notification
- Database requirements
Requirement #1: Reducing Image Footprint
Making the Fedora Cloud image fit in a smaller space. Storage is a significant cost element on cloud platforms.
Feature Addressed
Ready to run in Public and Private Clouds.
Nice to Have. The current cloud image is reasonably sized when compared to our competitors. However, smaller footprint has several advantages. Fewer packages means fewer updates and a smaller target for security problems. It makes it faster to download and deploy images across networks where the image storage and compute nodes run separately. And, reducing things our users don't really need gives more room to include things that they do.
Specific Areas
This requirement has several areas where effort will yield meaningful results. Each has its own level of effort, stakeholders, and dependencies.
Cloud-Focused Base Kernel
The cloud-focused base kernel will be a minimal kernel without many of the drivers traditionally necessary on hardware, like most PCI devices. The goal of having a custom kernel package is ultimately to reduce the size of the images which will reduce storage costs, make the images easier to move across networks between compute and image storage nodes.
Note that the kernel binaries will be shared across all of Fedora; the difference will be that not all modules will be packaged and included by default in the cloud image. This also means that it will be simple to add the other drivers if they are needed for special cases.
Effort is moderate; it includes defining the exact requirements of the smaller kernel, and creation and maintenance of that separation by the Fedora kernel team.
Internationalization / Localization
Fedora Cloud base images should only include a single default locale since it is meant to be used as an deployment target to save space. Other locales should be available through repositories. The idea is to rely on langpacks rather than the current RPM kludges which leave out internationalization, because that approach does not allow one to easily add language support later. Effort required is fairly high, because the packaging tools do not currently have such support. It will also likely have some impact on all Fedora packagers, depending on the implementation, and may also involve changes to the packaging guidelines.
Included Documentation
Documentation has the same issue as internationalization: it is often not needed on each image but takes significant space, and cannot be easily added back if RPM is configured to exclude it initially. Effort is similar to that for internationalization, although significant impact could be made by breaking out documentation from key packages included in the base image.
Refactoring Cloud-Init
Cloud Init was initially designed for a different distribution and is only loosely tailored for our needs. As it stands, it pulls in a rather large set of packages not used for other things. It is also written in Python, itself a large subsystem which it would eventually be nice to leave out of the base. Effort is moderate, with some low-hanging fruit which may be addressed easily.
Requirement #2: Improved Docker Integration
Docker is a popular tool for launching and managing application containers. This runs on bare metal, in virtualization on developers' machines, or in cloud guests. Right now, Docker can be added to the cloud base image but isn't included by default. Docker itself is small, but infrastructure to support it includes Libvirt, which is not small. In order to make it easier to get started and to speed up use in production, we will produce a Docker-specific image. Additionally, we want to create a library of Dockerfiles and possibly our own registry of images.
Feature Addressed
Docker support.
Should. This feature is an important change to support a variety of different teams working on PaaS (like OpenShift) and end-user delivery issues. That being said, since there is very little usage of Docker in those tools right now and the package is available in the repositories already, it won't be terribly detrimental to not have the image complete.
Effort required
High. We can produce the basic image with minor work, but SELinux is a key feature which will make us stand out from other systems on which Docker can be run. Additionally, producing official Docker container images depends on changes to the build system.
Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies
The Cloud SIG and our users are the major stakeholders. The SELinux team is instrumental in delivering the functionality we would like to see. Fedora Infrastructure and Release Engineering are involved in updating the build system. And the official images will be produced through Release Engineering. Major dependencies include:
- Better SElinux MCS separation incorporated in the policies shipped in Fedora.
- Creation of an agreed upon set of Dockerfiles for different tasks.
- ImageFactory support for creating Docker images, and that support integrated into Koji.
Requirement #3: Automatic Production and Upload of Images
We will develop Fedora Cloud images using text-based descriptive files and use an automated toolchain that generates images for our targets and upload them where appropriate. Currently, this is done by hand. Automation is necessary to scale to multiple supported images and a growing set of targets. Fedora images must pass automated QA before publication to ensure a minimum level of quality. In order to release updated images with confidence, automated testing is required, because we cannot expect the level of human attention which can be brought to a twice-yearly release.
Feature Addressed
Updated Images.
Must. We simply need this to be useful to our users, and therefore to be competitive.
Effort required
High. Work is currently ongoing with Release Engineering and QA to facilitate this process.
Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies
The Fedora Cloud Working Group will work with Release Engineering in implementing and supporting the needed functionality.
Requirement #4: Software Stacks for Various Languages
People developing and deploying code on top of Fedora need access to the relevant language stacks. Fedora already provides the latest versions of many of these, but often real-world version dependencies do not match the Fedora cycle. We need some way of offering multiple versions of languages and software stacks. Additionally, it is ideal if support for a given version lasts longer than the 13-month Fedora lifecycle, so that moving from one release of the base to the next can be less painful. The Cloud SIG plan to support the major languages:
- Ruby
- Python 2 & 3
- PHP 5.x
- Java
- Node.js
- Perl 5.x
- Go
We will provide infrastructure and support to volunteers who want to complete the supported stacks or bring new ones.
Feature Addressed
Ready Access to Fedora Collection of Packages.
Must. This addresses a key need of userbase.
Effort required
High. Access to existing Fedora packages is simple (we simply won't break what currently works), but Fedora does not currently have a good infrastructure for multiple versions of stacks or for decoupled lifecycles.
Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies
Software in this area will be the responsibility of the Environments and Stacks working group.
Requirement #5: Integration with Fedora Server Roles
We simply want to make sure that the tools to convert a Fedora Cloud base image to a Fedora Server role are available and function.
Feature Addressed
Cloud -> Server
Should. This helps tie the Fedora products together and makes the blurry lines between the Cloud and Server product more understandable.
Effort required
Medium. Effort is primarily in coordination and testing.
Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies
This effort will be done in collaboration with the Fedora Server Working Group.
Requirement #6: Tools for User Image Creation and Image / Template Library
We do not have a standardized process for end-user image creation, although we have several tools which can be used. We plan to develop this process and document it. This may also include an image library or a library of image creation templates, or both.
Features Addressed
Image Generation Tools, Image or Image Template Library
Nice to have. This is not required for our initial launch.
Effort required
Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies
Image creation tools (Oz/ImageFactory, etc.), Fedora Websites, Fedora Documentation, Cloud SIG users in general.
Requirement #7: Updated Web Site for Obtaining Cloud Images
As we provides images for various use cases (ie: Big Data, PaaS hosting, scale-out apps, etc.) and various target platforms, we need an updated website. Fedora provides its build toolchain and encourage the community to use it to build new products. The updated website should also reflect that by allowing folks to share and review the work done by their peers.
Feature(s) Addressed
Easy access to Fedora Cloud products and encouraging sharing in the community.
Must. A simple access to the cloud products is also a key argument to their success. Should. Providing a sharing platform to the community (as in not supported by the Cloud SIG) and peer-review based system will allow to service better our users and foster innovation.
Effort required
High. We need to define precisely what we want to show, and maintain the website.
Stakeholders / Owners / Major Dependencies
The Cloud SIG will work closely with Fedora Websites/Infrastructure and possibly Fedora Engineering if we need to develop specific apps and/or integrate with the existing Fedora infrastructure (like fedmsg).
We aim to provide a comprehensive documentation covering users to developers. Should. Provide narrative documentation to make it easier to use cloud images and use them as foundations to new products. NTH. On a volunteer basis, we will maintain a knowledge base.
Fedora Project Documentation
The Cloud SIG will cooperate with the Documentation Project to provide documentation to users, and developers of Fedora Cloud Products.
Open Source Projects documentation
Ensuring that Fedora is well-represented, up-to-date in other open source project documentation...
About this Document
This PRD (Product Requirements Document) is an evolving document, created by the Fedora Cloud SIG Working Group as part of the process for designing the Fedora Cloud product. The framework for the PRD itself is currently in a draft state. This document will evolve over time as the purpose of the SIG continues to be determined as the working group process gets under way and initial products start to get produced.
Contributors to this document include:
Reviewers & Contributors
The following people have contributed to the development of this document, through feedback on IRC, mailing lists, and other points of contact.
Some of the Cloud User Roles are based on "Description and Application of Core Cloud User Roles" ACM CHIMIT 2011, December 4 2011. Some aspects of Fedora Cloud personas are based on OpenStack personas (licensed under CC-By 3.0)
Community Information
The Fedora Cloud SIG is one of many teams within the Fedora Project. The Cloud SIG mailing list is located here. Minutes and logs from IRC meetings related to the development of this document should be listed here as the document evolves.
Approval History
Over time, it is expected that this document will undergo various rounds of review, approval, and editing; in the future, it may be rewritten for different releases of Fedora. While one can review the history of a wiki document (by clicking the "history" tab), it is useful to provide explicit indicators of any major format changes, approvals, or indications of it being in a "final" state, in a list that can allow someone to quickly see that all of the prescribed layers of approval have occured.
- January 22, 2014: Approval by FESCo
- January 8, 2014: Collaborative hackfest day.
- October 28, 2013: Initial Draft of template.
- FutureDate: Approval by SomeGroup; link to any pertinent mail announcement and/or meeting minutes
Document Conventions
Definitions and Acronyms
- AWS: Amazon Web Services
- Amazon EC2: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, a popular public IaaS, part of AWS
- IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service
- PaaS: Platform as a Service
- SaaS: Software as a Service
- PRD: Product Requirements Document
- EPEL: Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux
- CI: Continuous Integration
- CD: Continuous Delivery or Continuous Deployment
- SCL: Software Collections
- teams in charge of some aspects of Fedora Project
- NTH: Nice-to-have
- BZ: Bugzilla
- GUI: Graphical User Interface
- CLI: Command Line Interface
- API: Application Programming Interface
- RDBMS: Relational DataBase Management System
- FESCo: Fedora Engineering Steering Committee


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Today's News: Our Take - Report: Dean McDermott Accused of Cheating On Tori Spelling
Dean McDermott has been accused of cheating on Tori Spelling, his wife of seven years.
According to Us Weekly, McDermott had sex with Emily Goodhand, 28, a woman he met while promoting Chopped Canada in Toronto.
"He told me he and Tori had a sexless marriage," said Goodhand. "I believed him."
The woman claims she spent the night with Dean at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel on Dec. 6 and Dec. 7.
The most shocking celebrity breakups
Spelling, who has four children with McDermott, continues to put on a happy face for the public amidst the allegations. On Christmas Day, the actress posted a photo of their children on her blog to wish a happy holidays to her fans.
"I wanted to take a minute to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas, and for those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, a very happy holiday season! As another year comes to a close, I can't help but feel so grateful for all of my blessings. My beautiful family, my amazing friends, and of course, all of you!" Spelling wrote. "We're spending the day together - cuddling, cooking, baking, unwrapping gifts, eating, watching movies and counting our blessings"
The post was signed by all members of the Spelling-McDermott household, including Dean.
There have been reports the couple have been headed towards divorce all year, but in March Spelling wrote an open letter to Star denying the rumors. In the post, Spelling wrote that upon seeing Star's report of a split, she told her children,"Daddy and I are very happy and in love. There will be no divorce and all of us will remain together as a family."
View original Report: Dean McDermott Accused of Cheating On Tori Spelling at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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Abigael's (1407 Broadway – at 39th Street, New York, NY; Tel: 212.575.1407) calls to mind the posh elegance of the bygone era where films like My Man Godfrey, with William Powell and Carole Lombard, were set. It is a classy, sedate and uniquely appointed restaurant. Yet… the simple but rich atmosphere and decor, are not all that attract the eye and whet the palate at Abigael's… The dishes are inspired and delicious!
I met Chef Jeff Nathan in the small private library (one of various party rooms at Abigael's). There, amidst the Soncino Talmud and the Encyclopedia Britannica we discussed what precipitated his becoming a Chef. As a member of a generation where every Jewish parent dreamed of "my son the doctor" or "my son the lawyer," Jeff Nathan journeyed against the grain and, after a stint in the US Navy, attended the Culinary Institute of America. Driven to transcend and surpass, as in all else he ever attempted, chef Nathan dominated the competition and graduated at the top of his class in 1980.
Since 1998 he has been the chef/host of PBS' "New Jewish Cuisine, the only international gourmet Kosher cooking series, which is seen in four countries and translated into three languages." He is also a kosher and restaurant consultant to various food and wine producers.
I started the meal with with Abigael's Ultimate Sushi Platter which consisted of three sushi rolls.
The three rolls are: Tempura Trio (salmon, tuna, and fluke, tempura fried, with avocado, masago and scallions), Broadway (seaweed roll with tuna, yellow-tail and salmon, cucumber, avocado, Japanese dressing and masago), and Green Tea (yellowtail and avocado, topped with salmon, spicy tuna tartar and sweet wasabi soy sauce). Though fish and sushi are but a recently acquired tastes of mine, I did find the platter beautifully presented and deliciously toothsome to eat.
I then tried their Smoked Brisket Eggroll (Texas style, with barbecue vinaigrette and a chipotle potato salad). This dish fully demonstrates the creativity of Jeff Nathan as he metamorphoses the quintessentially traditional Brisket with a saucy bold new flavor and crispy exterior. Flavorful, as my mother used to say, ta'am fun ganeiden!
I followed that full flavored brisket with the Crispy Asian Chicken (crisp fried and tossed with spicy chile sauce, served with sweet and sour sesame-cucumber slaw).
Presentation was again an eyeful and the taste was quite savory.
A Latin American bred carnivore to the core, I loved the Argentine Smoked Short Ribs (house smoked rib tossed tossed with BBQ vinaigrette and chimi churri with scallion whipped potatoes).
The ribs were succulent, heavenly smoked and spiced, cooked to tender perfection. The scallion whipped potatoes… just right!
Great dinner, in a great atmosphere, though missing Carole Lombard or Myrna Loy by my side, but life… isn't perfect, could I really ask for more?


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Our Bismarck-Mandan Heart Walk has always been about coming together, getting hearts pumping, honoring survivors, raising lifesaving funds - and having fun along the way.


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Get Better When You Are Scared and Pumped
Anyone can hit the campus board and get strong, but a truly skilled climber is someone who can keep it together even when he is drowning in lactic acid, miles above the runner.
Anyone can hit the campus board and get strong, but a truly skilled climber is someone who can keep it together even when he is drowning in lactic acid, miles above the runner. Too often our inner caveman—the beast with no technique—asserts himself at the worst possible moment, and our panicky fight-or-flight response causes us to do the wrong thing, and take flight. Among the first things we hear when we start climbing are exhortations to "stay calm," "relax" and "use your feet." Prompts like these shape our technique in the early stages, but such advice eventually dries up, making it harder to take technique to the next stage.
One secret to advancing your ability is to understand exactly how your technique is thrown off when you're outside your comfort zone. We tend to blow it because we presume that our subconscious always knows best. Humans are a climbing species, and certain components of our natural, default climbing style are helpful, but the key is to carefully define those aspects that are counter-productive and counterintuitive. In the heat of battle, no matter how skilled and experienced you think you are, you will always have that simmering tendency to do the wrong thing. These five counterintuitive technique pointers can help you go from Stone Age to Stone Crusher.
➀ Don't bang your feet
Everyone knows how important it is to place your feet accurately, so why refuse to when you're pumped or scared? Nine times out of 10, you bang your feet when you're maxed because you're off balance, or, to be more specific, you keep your hips in the center as opposed to directing them over the active (higher) foot. Stand on the floor with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width and then stand on one foot. You must shift your hips to the side, over the weight-bearing leg. A good climber's hips will zig-zag up the wall. A bad climber's hips will move in a straight line. So the next time you're about to drag your foot when you're flailing at the top of a route, you know what to do. Shift, baby!
➁ The biggest footholds
aren't always the best
Another classic symptom of being pumped or hit by adrenaline is to throw your foot onto the largest and most obvious foothold, even if it is in a bad position, either too high (which makes it hard to stand up) or too far out to the side (which throws you off balance and necessitates a giant rock-over). If only you'd had the confidence to trust those smaller dinks that were lower down and closer in, they would have enabled you to build your feet up in smaller steps. More to the point, if only you'd seen them in the first place. Next time the red mist descends, look again for your footholds and consider the position before you make a hasty decision.
➂ Build the feet first, then reach
It's a simple decision: either step up and then reach, or reach and then step up. I guarantee that when you're fresh and on easy ground you'll see the sense in stepping up first, so why when you're redlining will you be so tempted to go for the reach? If you stretch for a handhold with both feet low down: your heels lift up, and you may slip and slam against the wall. Best case, you stay on but are tucked against the wall, lose visibility below you and have a nightmare trying to locate the foothold again. Yet when your fingers are uncurling, the handhold always seems more tempting. This is perhaps one of the most common reasons for failing on an onsight. Last year in Céüse I dropped from the last move of the onsight of a route that I'd been saving for 15 years, purely because I slapped for the pocket before building my feet. Coping with the failure was hard enough, without reminding myself that I'm supposed to be the guy who teaches this stuff!
➃ Arms straight
Bending your arms wastes strength and restricts the blood supply to your forearms. It's obviously smarter to hang from straight arms and direct all the force through your skeleton instead of draining your muscles, so why do you only do this when fresh and composed? Once again, the straight-armed style does not come naturally. If you ask a beginner to step onto a climbing wall, using any holds, he will do so with straight legs and bent arms. An orangutan would probably do the exact opposite and pull on with straight arms and bent legs, but the natural human instinct is to stand and bend the arms and this becomes your undoing on steeper routes. Lowering the center of gravity is also counterintuitive because you're focused on trying to climb up. The last thing you are thinking about is moving down. So the next time you're holding a lock-off, shaking out, chalking up, or feeling for a hold, ask yourself if
you could simply lower your hips and relieve the strain.
Related to this: you know that you shouldn't lock off, pull up reels of slack and stretch up to clip from a tiny crimp when a better hold next to the draw would enable you to clip from a straight arm. But when you're maxed you fool yourself. Perhaps there's something different about this particular clip? No, there's not. Think about it.
➄ Don't over grip
Over gripping is natural when you're halfway up a rock face. It's usually when you're cruising on easier ground that you relax your grip as much as possible, but this is one of the first things to vanish when anxiety levels rise. Those moments of madness when you start trying to rip the holds off the wall are invariably the times when you should attempt to conserve grip strength. Similarly when you're composed and thinking straight, you often stop to reassess how you are gripping a hold—perhaps there's a sneaky catch for the thumb, or a hidden incut section, or maybe you can switch from crimping to a more relaxed open-hand grip? For some reason, when you're on the brink of taking a whipper, it's usually a case of anything will do. How many times have you pulled back up the rope, only to realize that you weren't gripping the hold properly? The answer is not to waste precious time faffing with holds, but instead make a split-second check of your grip. It could easily determine the difference between success and failure.


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Any item currently not in stock is available by special order. Special orders take approximately 2 to 4 weeks for delivery.
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The iPad is about to have its academic chops put to the test this fall in a number of programs around the country. Colleges and universities are looking to adopt the iPad as a collaborative tool, a standardized mobile device to integrate into curriculums, and, in some cases, even a cost-saving device.
Oklahoma State University plans to begin a pilot iPad program this fall, with students in certain courses offered by the School of Media and Strategic Communications and the Spears School of Business receiving iPads to use with those courses. The program will be used to determine how effective iPads can be as tools to enhance learning as well as how such mobile devices can be integrated into the workplace.
"This limited pilot will be focused on fields of study where we believe we can best determine the higher education value of the iPad," Bill Handy, visiting assistant professor in OSU's School of Media and Strategic Communications, told Macsimum News. "We will evaluate the academic enhancement to the courses, how the iPad and its specific apps and web-based tools can be integrated in this capacity, and perhaps most importantly, how the integration of these mobile tools can expand the tactical abilities of students as they enter the workforce."
Though an iPad starts at $499 and can cost as much as $829 for the top-end model, there is potential for cost savings, as well. The university has already identified one class where the textbook in ePub format costs $100 less than the dead-tree version. With a typical class load of five courses, it could be possible to completely offset the cost of a device like an iPad in textbook savings alone. (At least, this is true if you're comparing the iPad against a stack of brand new textbooks; the savings may disappear if used books are brought into the comparison.)
The Illinois Institute of Technology has even more ambitious plans to integrate iPads into academics. A technology initiative will give all incoming freshman undergraduates—about 550 students—an iPad to use as a technological enhancement to the curriculum. Because all freshman are required to take several introductory courses, such as "Introduction to the Professions," software, e-texts, and other resources will be uniform for those courses.
With a typical class load of five courses, it could be possible to completely offset the cost of a device like an iPad in textbook savings alone"We can ensure everyone has the same hardware and software, and it makes it easier to integrate into the curriculum," Evan Venie, associate director of media relations for IIT, told Ars. "But we also want to open it up to other faculty that want to integrate iPad support into their courses—most of the faculty are very interested in leveraging the potential the iPad offers in the academic environment."
The Kindle already underwent similar pilot testing at seven universities last fall, as many schools are interested in replacing textbooks and mounds of printouts of journal articles and other assigned readings with eReaders. Amazon provided Kindle DXs to Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Pace University, Princeton University, Reed College, the University of Washington, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia for the evaluation program.
Though students were very receptive to participating in the tests, both faculty and students found numerous technological hurdles that in the end outweighed the potential benefits. Students at Reed College complained of the slow refresh rate of e-Ink displays, problematic input, inability to load PDFs over the network, and inability to view more than one text at a time as major sticking points. Reed faculty found converting documents to work well on the Kindle to be particularly difficult in most cases.
Students participating in the test at Darden School of Business, while loving the Kindle for personal reading, overwhelmingly felt the Kindle didn't pass muster in its current state for academic use—about 4 out of 5 would not recommend a Kindle DX to incoming MBA students. The test also faced a lawsuit from the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind over the Kindle's lack of accessibility features, though Amazon has pledged to address that shortcoming sometime this year.
Despite the disappointing results of the tests with the Kindle DX, schools have high hopes for the iPad. OSU and IIT aren't alone in exploring ways to use an iPad to enhance education—other programs around the country include:
- Seton Hill University's "An iPad for Everyone" is part of the university's Griffin Technology Advantage Program. Announced just as the first iPads were beginning to ship, the program will put an iPad in the hands of every full-time student starting this fall.
- Students at George Fox University, which has given a MacBook to incoming freshman for several years, will now offer students a choice between a MacBook or an iPad. "With this, we're basically asking students 'What computing system will work best for you?'" the university's chief information officer, Grag Smith, said at the time the program was announced.
- North Carolina State University Libraries announced this past spring that it acquired 30 iPads to offer students and faculty for four-hour loans as part of the school's Technology Lending Service. That service offers a variety of devices for loan to students, including laptops, digital cameras, eBook readers, graphing calculators, and more. In addition to browsing the web and "evaluating whether this latest platform is something you want to invest in for the future," the iPads can be used to read some of the 9,000 eBooks NC State recently acquired.
- Students in a master's course in global health research at Duke University's Global Health Institute will be given iPads to use for field work. "Our primary goal is to equip our students with a toolset that allows them to make the most of their time in the field," said Associate Professor of Sociology Jen'nan Read, who will be teaching the class. The students will have models with 3G networking as well as pre-installed apps for collecting data, importing media files, and graphing results.
- The University of Maryland will be giving 75 honors students enrolled in the Digital Cultures and Creativity "living and learning program" an iPad this fall. Students will use the iPads for pulling down multimedia content related to their coursework, and will also be developing their own apps for the device. The iPad program is part of a larger Mobility Initiative designed to integrate mobile devices into the curriculum at UM.
- Reed College will repeat an experiment that tested student preference of textbooks loaded on a Kindle versus traditional paper textbooks this fall, this time using iPads. Students in the previous experiment preferred the dead-tree edition to using a Kindle DX, despite the obvious advantage of not hauling heavy books all over campus. Expectations are that the iPad will fare better with students than the Kindle did. "If I were to predict, I would say that the results are going to be dramatically different and much better," Martin D. Ringle, chief technology officer at Reed College, told The Chronicle of Higher Education, "and they're going to point the way to what role this technology is going to play in higher education."
The iPad can certainly address the speed and input issues that students complained about, and offers accessibility features for vision-impaired users. However, the device may suffer from similar problems with loading documents over the air and viewing more than one text at a time. But by combining its speed with the multitasking capabilities that will come in a fall update to iOS 4, the iPad may still prove to be a workable solution. If it works as well as expected, carrying an iPad would sure beat lugging 40lbs of books and a laptop all over campus.
Follow us for disruptive tech news: John C. Abell and Epicenter on Twitter.
See Also:
- Colleges Dream of Paperless, iPad-centric Education
- Apple iPad Reaches '1 Million Sold' Twice as Fast as iPhone ...
- Apple's iPad Will Read Books Out Loud, Support Free E-Books ...
- iPad Fuels Magazine Disruption
- Is the iPad Driving E-Book Piracy, and Does It Matter?
- Dual-Screen Tablet Maker Hopes to Reinvent the Textbook
- Open Source Textbook Company Now BMOC at 400 Colleges


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Oh God, you who gave free will to your creation, bless those who use that precious gift to blog.
May we though this gift of freedom of expression enlighten, entertain and inform our readers, and we ask particular blessing for those who bring your word across the net, that they may faithfully execute your command to make disciples of all nations.
We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.


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Hey everyone, long time no update but I figured with work being as busy as it is right now I'm best off using the time updating this blog on the models. So here is my progress so far...
I've attached most of the shoulders with blue tac so you guys can see what they're going to look like, I've pretty much completely finished the Dark Templar (Who would of thought he'd be the first done right?), I've even completely attached his shoulders, I just need to greenstuff the join of his wrist
Sorry for not posting regularly lately, I've either been busy or finished so late I had to go strait to bed as opposed to write this blog (like last nights 2am bed time...).
I've been doing a few things lately, one of which is I finally got some robes on my Dark Angels Marine! I think they've turned out pretty good though I still need to put a rope around his waist so they aren't quite finished just yet.
I've also added some
Tonight I worked on the stomach details, I think they look pretty good. There are some I'll add a little more detail tomorrow when it's fully cured but all in all the base of what they'll all look like is there. Getting close to finishing them now...
Black Shield
Black Templar
Custom Marine
Imperial Fist
So I was home sick today and managed to get a bit done between naps, I pretty much concentrated on the stomach area. When creating the stomach it's best to do a smooth bottom layer before adding the details like cables ect. This is what I've done today... And I've managed to get the belt and stomach on my Space Wolf model so he's caught up to the rest of them. =D
Tomorrow after training I'll start working on
Today was a good day, my daughter and my girlfriend went out all day and I got stuck in! First on my list was the belts for my Marines, followed by finishing off the backpacks (Completely this time), and even managed to figure out what to do with the staff I was building. All in all, I'm rather pleased with myself. =D
Now for some pics!
For the belts I just rolled out some greenstuff into a long thin tube and wrapped it around the waist, then I applied light pressure
Hey guys.
Didn't get a great deal of spare time today so I got next to nothing done. All I managed to do was attempt to get a part of the heavy bolter backpack neater, I added two thin wires to the top of my staff I'm making and put thin layers over one side of the Space wolves thunder hammer... I'm contemplating making the head of the hammer larger and solid. I'm thinking of making it like a large chunk of stone has been cut out and reinforced with metal straps around it to keep it together
I only managed to get just over an hour to continue this today, but pretty much all the greenstuff work on the backpacks is done. All that's left on them is any extra details I may want to add, like a skull or a symbol of some sort. I put a thin plate on top of the backpacks because I think it makes them look neater and slightly taller. Check out the picks below.
This is my attempt at sculpting flames as an icon. For my Salamander Marine.
Hey everyone, sorry for not posting at all the past week, I haven't had a chance to get a great deal done so had nothing to post. But I've put in several hours after work today and this is what I managed to do.
First of all I started filling in the gaps in the backpacks and adding a bit of personality to some of them. You need to take your time with this as it is important to get the join as neat as you can.
Tonight I've been trying to finish off the backpacks, once again I didn't get as much as I would of liked due to working late, but I've only got one left to go and the heavy bolter backpack is half way finished. Then I just need to tidy them up with greenstuff and add some personality and the backpacks will be done. I've cut the heavy bolter backpack down the centre and made a mould of one of the front sides and filled it with greenstuff so it should be ready for tomorrow after footy training, I'm
Sorry I haven't been posting on here guys, I've had a busy busy weekend and haven't really done anything worth mentioning. But tonight I knuckled down for the last few hours and managed to get all the arms ready to go. I clipped away the bulky terminator shoulder join and with my scalpel shaved away the excess to make it neater. Most of the arms I think I should just about be able to put strait onto the torso with minimal greenstuff work. Though I still need to attach that disc to the elbow of the
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text:
Front Runners List: Click to see list completion progress by climbers that log their climbs using Peakbagger.com.
Compare Climbers: Click to compare ascents of up to 5 climbers working on this list.
The Kiglapait Mountains lie near Nain, in nothern Labrador but south of the Torngat and Kauamjet Mountains. Not as high as those ranges, they still boast very rugged terrain and many peaks with high prominence values. Most peaks here do not have names, so I assigned them a designation based on their elevation and map sheet. I would imagine that most of these summits have not yet been climbed.
Richard Garland is 99% responsible for this list. I verified his work by double-checking his contor-counting and cleaning up the latitude-longitudes using GIS software. See his web page below for his verison of the list.
= Peak with Rank #1 on List;   = Other Peaks
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